Fish Room Drywall... Normal or moisture and mold resistant?
- Thread starter Jeff000
- Start date
superchargeme
New member
How big is you furnace room? How large is your support system, for the tank? I just finshed my fish/furnace room. I used hardy board and then covered that withpanel board and siliconed all the joints. I had regular drywall in there for about 7 years when I took it out it pretty much fall to pieces.
Gandolfe
New member
the only place they use greenboard in new houses is where the wall might come in contact with water..I.E. behind shower walls, in the bath tub area etc... the rest of the bathroom they use regular drywall. They use the grey rock wall stuff if they are gonna tile the area because it doesn't have as much give as drywall to keep grout from cracking. I have done new construction plumbing in florida for the past 12 years
sfsuphysics
Active member
Fish room is the furnace room? I would have a few issues with that first being are you planing on actively venting the room? You will get humidity issues that could prematurely rust out your furnace or the duct work since the warm moist air will get pulled through that. Then if you are actively venting the room, you sure as hell don't want that to compete with your furnace vent in getting gasses out of the room. IMO, something you want to really talk with a professional about.
That said, spend the extra money, get greenboard... treat the fishroom as if you're building a bathroom, good primer (oil based is nice), humidity is going to be the largest issue, and it doesn't take much to cause issues.
That said, spend the extra money, get greenboard... treat the fishroom as if you're building a bathroom, good primer (oil based is nice), humidity is going to be the largest issue, and it doesn't take much to cause issues.
Dave Thebrewguy
New member
The tank won't make a difference at all but it might be a good idea to use mold/moisture resistant sheetrock in a furnace room anyway. Is is in a basement? A/C system? Plumbing that may need occasii al service? Moisture from the tank is insignificant but many furnace rooms could be considered " wet locations."
reefermad619
New member
I'm paranoid! Use the moisture resistant drywall. Cost maybe double, but you might as well overbuild it. If I were lucky enough to have a fish room, that's what I would use. At least for the bottom half of the room for spills/floods.
gweston
New member
I did this for my sump room, minus the drywall. The drywall makes it look nice. Like a real room. My fish room is in the basement, thus I didn't spend the extra cash on drywall, paint, plus labor time.
The display room on the other side of the wall though? That was finished with drywall, painted, etc. The finished man-cave.
For the sump room I used a staple gun and put up 4mil plastic sheeting. Quick and easy.
dzfish17
Active member
When I built my 5'x12' fish room I used regular sheetrock. I had some moisture issues until I added an exhaust fan. I went with the 15.00 (cheap) model... its been running over a yr now with no more moisture problems. I figured that the fan would rust out in a few yrs so why spend a lot of money on one.
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I've heard that getting a de-humidifier going full-time is more critical than the drywall.
That being said, mold problems will reduce the value of your house by a lot more than the difference in the drywall cost... so I'd go with the expensive stuff, get the de-humidifier going, and hope that there's no evidence whenever you decide to sell the place down the road.
That being said, mold problems will reduce the value of your house by a lot more than the difference in the drywall cost... so I'd go with the expensive stuff, get the de-humidifier going, and hope that there's no evidence whenever you decide to sell the place down the road.
bbaz123456
New member
No question, use green board(moisture resistant). Fwiw, I am an hvac contractor and was also was a home builder. Although it can vary greatly on what you plan on having in your fish room, chances are you will have much more humidity than a bathroom would ever see. If I could do it again I'd green board my whole house!
superchargeme
New member
I also purchased a large 450cfm inline fan and a temp/humidity controller. go with the green
I want a fan, but not sure which line I can tie into for exhaust. I suppose the furnace or hot water as long as I interlocked them so when one runs so does the other.
I ended up going with normal drywall, the 100% cost increase to get green board didn't seem worth it. Sure it would only be a 160 more bucks, but I didn't put put the blue mold resistant studs in, so why drywall? I did do a pressure treated bottom plate on the concrete though.
The sheet directly above the tanks will be green board, as they are the only ones I can see having an issue.
This was after talking with the drywaller foreman on site at work. Apparently mold isn't really an issue here unless there is a leak, in which case you are replacing drywall anyways.
bbaz123456
New member
160 bucks is still $160, I may have cheaped out there too. Green board is great for its purpose but you are probably right on, that more importantly you need to control the humidity before it builds up. I know green board holds up much better after complete saturation but can not confirm what the salt would do. Salt has it ways of destroying everything
